Google flips out over Gesture Search

Google has announced an innovative new feature for Android handsets: Flipping for Gesture Search.

Gesture Search was added earlier this year, allowing you to search from anywhere in the phone by writing characters on the screen. However, the intuition was somewhat compromised by having to spend ages loading up the interface.

Google has sorted that problem with the announcement of Gesture Search 1.2, offering a simpler way of doing things:

"By doing a 'double flip' motion gesture, or flipping your phone away and then back, you can start Gesture Search at any time. This eliminates the need to activate Gesture Search from a home screen shortcut," said Google on its official blog.

Bugs in the works

Apparently there are some bugs as the service is in beta, but the good news is users can start playing with Gesture Search 1.2 from the Android Market, providing they've got a device with Android 1.6 or higher.

Check out the new service in action from Google's video, and see if it's something that will revolutionise your life or be a fun thing to do once in a while when you remember:

Google had teased earlier this week that it would be announcing some 'cool new' phone features today. While Gesture Search is certainly interesting, we are hoping the search giant will also be announcing something a bit more substantial.